FullMetalPanda:dittybopper: Actually makes sense, and it's why I use a manual typewriter to make one time pads: No data remanence issues.

They can tell exactly what you're typing by just hearing you type

I think it was in "Spycatcher" he talked about listening to typewriters to try and pick out the unique sounds of each key. Also on electric typewriters give off EM radiation that can be analyzed as well.

They can probably listen to a typewriter and tell what is being typed on it by listening to the different sounds of the key presses. If they can do it with computer keyboards that can do it with typewriters.

FullMetalPanda:dittybopper: Actually makes sense, and it's why I use a manual typewriter to make one time pads: No data remanence issues.

They can tell exactly what you're typing by just hearing you type

No, not on your smart phone listening to the touch tone beeps. Older than that. Way older. It was this device that had things called "Keys" with levers and all kinds of metal-y looking stuff. Besides, is there anyone alive that actually knows how to "listen" to keys on an old mechanical, non electrified typewriter?

FullMetalPanda:dittybopper: Actually makes sense, and it's why I use a manual typewriter to make one time pads: No data remanence issues.

They can tell exactly what you're typing by just hearing you type

1. I doubt that. Too much variation in the strike of a single character with a manual typewriter based upon how you hit the key. You might be able to do it with electric typewriters, but I suspect that you need to put the microphone actually *IN* the typewriter for it to work. Recording the sound from across the room isn't going to

2. Even *IF* you can, you need access to the room where the document is being typed. Bugging a SCIF (or it's Russian equivalent) is a neat trick if you can manage it, which you almost certainly can't. Even if you put a bug in a typewriter, those sorts of areas are specifically designed to block electromagnetic radiation from leaking out, so a wireless bug isn't going to work, and a wired one would be too easily found.

whither_apophis:FullMetalPanda: dittybopper: Actually makes sense, and it's why I use a manual typewriter to make one time pads: No data remanence issues.

They can tell exactly what you're typing by just hearing you type

I think it was in "Spycatcher" he talked about listening to typewriters to try and pick out the unique sounds of each key. Also on electric typewriters give off EM radiation that can be analyzed as well.

While the keystroke analysis sounds kind of absurd, grabbing the em radiation is called Van Eck phreaking. I have never got around to building an eckbox to try it but the have been proof of concepts done to make it a real security issue.

Gunny Highway:Psycoholic_Slag: zenobia: My dad tells a story from the Space Race where NASA scientists were trying to come up with a pen that writes in zero gravity. The Russians used a pencil.

Monitor this b*tches:

[www.photo-dictionary.com image 700x466]

[cuboidal.org image 358x200]

The countermeasure for that is simple: Place some hard material behind the piece of paper being written on. Like a piece of plastic or sheet metal. Or just remove the paper and *THEN* write on it with it being on a hard surface.

FullMetalPanda: dittybopper: Actually makes sense, and it's why I use a manual typewriter to make one time pads: No data remanence issues.

They can tell exactly what you're typing by just hearing you type

No, not on your smart phone listening to the touch tone beeps. Older than that. Way older. It was this device that had things called "Keys" with levers and all kinds of metal-y looking stuff. Besides, is there anyone alive that actually knows how to "listen" to keys on an old mechanical, non electrified typewriter?

I used to know when the editor was finished with his copy because his typing sped up and sounded 'happier'. Yeah. there is a 'happy' sound to typing. Also, he made fewer spelling errors at the end of his copy.tappity tap tap tap...tappitytappitytappitytappitytap, zip. "Freakstorm! Proof this and get it down to composing!"

(Editing) It was an knight to remember at the balllpark last nighte. Mike ^m^antle, the power hitter for the Mud Sliders stepped up the the plate with the bases loadede "It's true," I thought to myself as I sat in the stands watching, "Great moments are made ^I like penises^."

Silly. Computers are capable of more than 12,000,000 different colors. That's enough for a single color to correspond to a whole word, rather than a single letter. Imagine a picture, comprised of only the green part of the spectrum (2,000,000+ possibilities). Now imagine a picture that looks like nothing more than green "snow", similar to an old-style TV not tuned to a particular station. That one picture could contain an entire Stephen King novel. And, it doesn't even have to be sent anywhere, merely posted to an obscure server somewhere, for "on-demand" access. Hell, imgur or tumblr could be an espionage forum. And the NSA would be none the wiser.

dittybopper:Gunny Highway: Psycoholic_Slag: zenobia: My dad tells a story from the Space Race where NASA scientists were trying to come up with a pen that writes in zero gravity. The Russians used a pencil.

Monitor this b*tches:

[www.photo-dictionary.com image 700x466]

[cuboidal.org image 358x200]

The countermeasure for that is simple: Place some hard material behind the piece of paper being written on. Like a piece of plastic or sheet metal. Or just remove the paper and *THEN* write on it with it being on a hard surface.

If it's a well-worn cloth ribbon, I doubt they'd get anything from it, but again that requires physical access, and it's a hell of a lot harder to smuggle a typewriter ribbon out of a secure area than, say, a thumb drive.

In any case, destroying a typewriter ribbon is a lot cheaper and easier than destroying a hard drive.

Again, this is a good, low-tech solution to what has become a significant high-tech headache. If you only need to create 1, 2, or 3 copies of a document for security reasons, it's better to do it on a typewriter because it doesn't leave those documents lying around on a computer system for the Bradley Manning's and Edward Snowden's of the world to find.

StaleCoffee:whither_apophis: FullMetalPanda: dittybopper: Actually makes sense, and it's why I use a manual typewriter to make one time pads: No data remanence issues.

They can tell exactly what you're typing by just hearing you type

I think it was in "Spycatcher" he talked about listening to typewriters to try and pick out the unique sounds of each key. Also on electric typewriters give off EM radiation that can be analyzed as well.

While the keystroke analysis sounds kind of absurd, grabbing the em radiation is called Van Eck phreaking. I have never got around to building an eckbox to try it but the have been proof of concepts done to make it a real security issue.

The keystroke analysis could be based on the idea that every hammer travels a different distance from its resting point to the point of impact, and then returns the same distance. That doesn't seem trivial to analyze when someone is typing quickly; you have three sounds for each key, and you need to sort them all out. But it definitely doesn't seem impossible.